Phu Quoc operators are unusually honest about the unit of their prices. The pages say /P, /pax, USD/Pax, / 01 khách — per person, per guest — or they price the hull instead. That does not make the numbers easy to compare, because three different pricing logics hide behind those labels, and two of them look almost identical on the page.
This is a short field guide to reading them, so that two quotes for the same day out can be put side by side without guessing.
One check instead of arithmetic. Divide the price for the largest group in the table by the number of guests: if it matches the single-guest price, the price is per person; if it comes out clearly lower, you are paying for the hull.
In which three ways is a boat day priced?
- Per person, flat. One number, multiplied by heads.
- Per boat. One number for the hull, with a grid that rises slowly as guests are added.
- Per person, sliding. A per-head number that falls as the group grows — a whole-boat price divided up in advance and printed as a table.
The first and the third are both written «per person». Telling them apart is the whole skill.
What do the Vietnamese labels mean?
Khách is a guest, so / 01 khách means per one guest: VEGAYACHTS prices a seat on the 24-metre sailing catamaran La Fiesta Libera at 3,600,000 VND (about $138) per guest on a shared departure. The 50% banner on that page expired on 31 December 2024, so this is the base rate.
Du thuyền riêng means a private yacht, so a price marked that way covers the whole vessel rather than a seat on it. Giá tour is simply the tour price, and on Vietnamese-language pages it is usually broken down in a table by category of guest.
RED RIVER TOURS shows the clearest version of that table, and it splits by height rather than age: on the four-island canoe trip at 800,000 VND (about $31), a guest from 1.4 m pays the adult rate, 1.0–1.4 m pays 560,000 VND (about $22), and under 1.0 m goes free.
Flat per person: the simple case
Layla Mermaid Tours writes 1,950,000 VND (about $75) / pax and means it: the four-island morning escape and the three-island sunset escape carry the same number, with a minimum of four guests and a maximum of twelve. John's Tours writes USD/Pax — 32 USD for three islands, 59 USD for the sunset barbecue trip — with child rates of 22 and 41 USD for ages 4 to 9.
Flipper Diving Club writes / P on its booking form: 900,000 VND (about $35) per person for a boat day north or south for guests staying in the centre of the island.
And OnBird, despite a storefront that says «/ Group», prints a strictly linear table on the small-group southern trip: one guest 1,380,000 VND (about $53), eight guests 11,040,000 VND (about $425). Divide and the answer is the same 1,380,000 every time — that is a per-person price wearing the wrong label.
Per boat: when the second guest is nearly free
The tell is a grid that does not divide evenly. OnBird's private speedboat starts at 5,900,000 VND (about $227) for one guest and reaches 14,450,000 VND (about $556) at twelve; the second guest adds 600,000 VND (about $23), not another 5,900,000. That is a charter with a headcount grid, and the page says so: trip type, private charter.
The same shape appears elsewhere. Flipper's private boat is 10,000,000 VND (about $385) to the north and 13,000,000 VND (about $500) to the south, four guests inside the price, 900,000 VND (about $35) per additional adult and 500,000 for a ten-year-old. The family speedboat runs 6,600,000 VND (about $254) for two guests and 8,900,000 for five.
The private sunset kayaking trip is 4,500,000 VND (about $173) for two, 6,000,000 for three and 7,000,000 for four. And Les Rives charters the whole catamaran on the fishing and snorkelling day for 24,999,000 VND (about $962) at one to three guests and 26,999,000 VND (about $1,038) at four to six.
Sliding per person: the case that catches people out
Kimie's Tours publishes a table headed «price per person» for the private southern snorkelling trip, and the number inside it moves: 4,940,000 VND (about $190) for one guest, 2,470,000 each for two, 1,950,000 for three, 1,560,000 for four, 1,430,000 for five, 1,170,000 for six and 1,040,000 each from seven to twelve. Every line is genuinely per person; the total is what stays roughly flat.
John's private big-fish trip works identically in dollars: 646 USD per pax for one, 337 for two, 234 for three, 182 for four and 170 for five. Read the top line only and the trip looks unaffordable; read the table and four people pay 728 USD between them.
The same question, four people
| Trip | Unit as printed | Four guests pay |
|---|---|---|
| Flipper boat day, guests staying central | 900,000 VND (about $35) / P | 3,600,000 VND (about $138) |
| OnBird group sea kayaking | 950,000 VND (about $37) per person | 3,800,000 VND (about $146) |
| Kimie's southern group trip | 950,000 VND (about $37) per person | 3,800,000 VND (about $146) |
| OnBird small-group south | 1,380,000 VND (about $53) per person | 5,520,000 VND (about $212) |
| Kimie's private southern trip | 1,560,000 VND (about $60) per person at 4 | 6,240,000 VND (about $240) |
| OnBird private sunset kayaking | 7,000,000 VND (about $269) per group of 4 | 7,000,000 VND (about $269) |
| Layla morning escape | 1,950,000 VND (about $75) / pax | 7,800,000 VND (about $300) |
| OnBird private speedboat | 8,000,000 VND (about $308) per boat at 4 | 8,000,000 VND (about $308) |
| Flipper private boat, north | 10,000,000 VND (about $385) per boat, 4 included | 10,000,000 VND (about $385) |
| Les Rives fishing and snorkelling | 3,799,000 VND (about $146) adult | 15,196,000 VND (about $584) |
Where you sleep is part of the unit too
Flipper Diving Club prices its boat days by where the guest is staying, not only by where the boat goes — the same trip carries different numbers for guests in the north, the centre and the south of the island.
Everyone else expresses the same thing as a pick-up surcharge: OnBird lists 250,000 VND (about $10) for Ong Lang, 300,000 for Ham Ninh, 350,000 for Cua Can, 450,000 for Vung Bau, Vinpearl and Bai Dai and 500,000 for Ganh Dau, all per group; RED RIVER TOURS lists 100,000, 200,000 and 400,000 VND (about $15) per guest for the same three rings.
Common questions
How do I tell a per-person price from a charter?
Divide the price for the largest group in the table by the number of guests. If the answer equals the one-guest price, it is per person. If it is far lower, the hull is what you are paying for.
Why is a private trip sometimes cheaper per head than a group one?
Because charter grids flatten. Four guests on OnBird's private speedboat pay 8,000,000 VND (about $308), which is 2,000,000 each — more than the small-group rate of 1,380,000, but the charter for twelve guests is 14,450,000 VND (about $556), roughly 1,204,000 (about $46) a head — already below the shared fare. OnBird publishes no rates in between.
Are children counted as guests?
For headcount, usually yes; for price, not always. Layla carries children under five free, John's Tours charges nothing under four, RED RIVER TOURS goes by height, and OnBird bills children of 4 to 14 who are under 155 cm at 75 per cent of the adult rate on the small-group trip.
Updated 4 September 2026. All prices, inclusions and timings are quoted from the operators' own published pages.
